Humorous, reflective and sentimental. "The finest English poet" between the generations of Shelley and Tennyson.

Sometimes dismissed as a `lesser poet` of the Romantic Era, Thomas Hood was known in his lifetime as a comic writer. Today, he is best known for his more serious work, of which The Song of the Shirt upon publication. Attacking worker exploitation, it first appeared anonymously in Punch in 1843, but was soon reprinted across various European newspapers, and appeared on such media as pocket handkerchiefs and broadsheets. Highly regarded by many literary figures (including Charles Dickens), it had a considerably wide-reaching impact. His friendship with Dickens dates from his review of Dicken`s Master Humphrey`s Clock in 1840.

In addition to his poetry, Hood wrote a collection of stories, National Tales , and a three-volume prose novel, Tylney Hall , which sold well upon publication in 1834 but did not save his ailing finances (he was forced to move to the Continent for a time). Financial problems continued until 1841 when he received a grant from the Royal Literary Fund.

Hood was sub-editor of the London Magazine for a time, and then in 1829, the editor of The Gem , which published works by Alfred Lord Tennyson, amongst others.  In 1841, he took on the editorship of the New Monthly Magazine , upon the death of Theodore Hook; in 1843, he would resign, after a quarrel with the magazine`s publisher. He was also part owner of the literary journal The Athenaeum from 1829 to 1831, to which he would submit many works over the years.

One of his poems, I Remember, I Remember would later inspire another poet, Philip Larkin, to write a poem of the same title, dealing with the same issues.

bibliography source : lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp